since we have been married my husband jokes that i only buy ingredients and not food at the store. I KIND OF LIKE THAT. these are my adventures of preparing meals with basic, real food ingredients and eliminating convenience foods.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Continuing with the seasoning mixes that I made for my Dad, I will share my Italian Dressing mix. This, like almost all of my seasoning mixes, carries the name of the main use I have for the mix, and like the others, this one is great for a lot of different uses. I do think this one is the one that my Dad was anticipating the most.

When I use this as a dressing mix, I add 1 tablespoon of the seasoning mix, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1/3 cup of oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. You can experiment with different oils and vinegars to change the taste. Salad dressings are one of the first things that I decided to stop buying in the store. It is so simple and quick to mix up something to dress a salad with, and the taste is so much better than anything you can buy in a store. As an added benefit, I also a lot less waste. I do like to try many different tastes, so I ended up with a lot of half empty bottles in the fridge that would ultimately end up in the trash. Now, I just mix up what I need and nothing gets wasted.

Italian Dressing Mix

3 tablespoons of garlic powder

3 tablespoons onion powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup oregano

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

3/4 teaspoon thyme

1 tablespoon basil

3 tablespoons parsley

3/4 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons ground mustard

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

I use this as a salad dressing mix, sprinkled on chicken or shrimp or to season tomato sauce.

Friday, January 3, 2014

It's been a while! Life got a little crazy there for a while and then the business of the holidays set in, to make it even a little more crazy. I love all the hustle and bustle that takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, but I am kind of happy to be getting back into a routine.

My Dad had a heart attack a couple of months ago. He had to have some stints put in, but his recuperation has been awesome. He is having to adjust his eating habits though. We are a salty snack loving family! Since I also have to watch my BP, I started looking for seasoning blends that I could make that would contain little or no salt, but still pack a lot of flavor. I also did a lot of experimenting and using some of my own recipes, I came up with several blends I am pretty happy with.

I am making Dad his own set of seasoning mixes that he can incorporate into his healthier eating. Most of this blends started out as what they are named but they get used for many more things than just what the name implies. For instance, the Greek Seasoning is great on chicken, as a rub or a marinade, but I will also add it to some oil and vinegar to make a salad dressing, add a little to some hummus, sprinkle some in olive oil for a bread dipping sauce or add it to my dough when I am baking bread.

This recipe is for a basic one serving mix, but when I make it, I make about 10 servings and store in an air tight jar.